Tao Te Ching
Xenophanes Ξενοφάνης ὁ Κολοφώνιος
(Xenophanes of Colophon)
570 – 475 BCE
Nomad, belief-system critic, poet, and highly influential but greatly under-appreciated pre-Socratic Greek philosopher; Xenophanes traveled for 67 years teaching, "making enemies," and challenging traditional Greek values like athleticism and belief in anthropomorphic gods. Plato used many of his ideas in the Republic III, Aristotle deprecated him but then advanced many of his ideas when he wrote Metaphysics. Xenophanes realized early how stuck to tradition most contemporaries become and consciously wrote for future generations he believed (correctly) would be more open to his ideas.
Eras
Western
Egyptian Civilization (3150 – 305 BCE)Greek Civilization (480 – 146 BCE)
The Axial Age, “The Great Leap of Being” (800 – 200 BCE)
Chinese
Eastern Zhou 東周 (770 – 256 BCE)Spring and Autumn period 春秋时代 (770 – 476 BCE)
Warring States period 春秋时代 (476 – 221 BCE)
Unlisted Sources
Fragments
Quotes by Xenophanes (7 quotes)
“Ethiopians make their gods black and snub-nosed; the Thracians say theirs have blue eyes and red hair... if oxen and horses had hands and could paint, they would paint the forms of gods like horses and oxen.”
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“Homer and Hesiod have attributed to the gods all sorts of things that are disreputable and worthy of blame when done by men: theft, adultery, and mutual deception.”
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“No man knows distinctly anything, and no man ever will... all things are matters of opinion.”
from Fragments
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“The sea is the source of water and the source of wind; for neither would blasts of wind arise in the clouds and blow out from within them, except for the great sea, nor would the streams of rivers nor the rain-water in the sky exist but for the sea; but the great sea is the begetter of clouds and winds and rivers.”
from Fragments
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“For all things are from the earth and to the earth all things come in the end”
from Fragments
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“It takes a wise man to recognize a wise man.”
from Fragments
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“No human being will ever know the Truth, for even if they happen to say it by chance, they would not even known they had done so.”
from Fragments
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Quotes about Xenophanes (2 quotes)
“Xenophanes has his place in the succession of rationalists who were opposed to the mystical tendencies of Pythagoras and others, but as an independent thinker he is not in the first rank.”
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“This god was identified by Xenophanes with the universe... all change in history, and all separateness in things, are superficial phenomena; beneath the flux and variety of forms is an unchanging unity, which is the innermost reality of God. From this starting point, Xenophanes's disciple, Parmenides, proceeded to that idealistic philosophy what was in turn to mold the thought of Plato and Platonists throughout antiquity, and of Europe even to our day.”
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